Cheaper to Keep Her (part 1) (19 page)

After lying there thinking for several minutes, I heard Diamond and her piece of shit man come out the bathroom. I could actually hear Brian’s hard ass footsteps going towards Diamond’s room. I just rolled my damn eyes and stared up at the ceiling. I was still thinking about my dilemma when I heard a small tap on my bedroom door. I leaned up on one elbow and looked at the door. “Who?” I called out, knowing damn well who it was.

Diamond peeped her head inside. I gave her a mean look and flopped back down on my bed. She smiled at me and came and sat on my bed. I couldn’t stay mad at Diamond’s ass for long. She always knew how to make up with me whenever we had a little dust up.

“
Girl, don’t be mad. You know how Brian is and we were just caught off guard,” Diamond said apologetically. “He ain’t mean nothing by what he said . . . you know about the bills and stuff. I got on his ass about that.”

I twisted my lips. “Yeah, but you know we always talk while one or the other is in the shower, so I was just trying to tell you about this shit that’s going on with Duke. I wasn’t trying to bust in on ya’ll on purpose like he was making it seem.”

“
I know . . . I know you wasn’t. Now what’s this shit with Duke?” Diamond asked. But before I could answer her she started talking again. “Oh yeah, wait a minute, now I remember you called me at the club last night after my first set. I kind of remember you talking some crazy shit about some dead girl and some baby . . . Duke and the doctor. I believe you said a girl was on the news and her body was found or some shit. I mean, you sounded like a mad woman. And I wanted to ask you what the hell was you smoking on, girl. I couldn’t believe that shit you was saying,” Diamond said, laughing afterwards.

“
You think this shit is all a joke?” I asked seriously. “I was dead ass serious! I’m telling you Diamond, I’m on to something here. I saw a girl on the news who was missing and found dead. She had been given a c-section and now her baby is missing. And I mean, stolen Diamond!”

I looked her in the eyes. Then I said, “Get up for a minute.” When Diamond stood up, I lifted the edge of my mattress and retrieved the pictures and the paperwork that would confirm my suspicions and explain to her what I was trying to say. “Look at this shit Diamond,” I passed her the stack of photos.

Diamond grabbed them and shuffled through the stack. Her face was deadpan. No emotion or reaction. “And?” she asked, twisting her lips. She had a so what, what the fuck look on her face.

“
And . . . this girl right here, was on the fucking news,” I said, plucking the picture of the dead girl, emphasizing my point. “She was found dead . . . murdered from a botched C-section! How many times I gotta explain this shit to you! These pictures came from Duke’s condo . . . his desk! Now you tell me I shouldn’t be suspicious that he had her killed or even worse, killed her himself so he could snatch her fucking baby!”

“
What?” Diamond asked, crinkling her face in confusion.

“
Diamond, what are you smoking these days? You can’t follow me?” I said out of frustration. “Have you heard about a missing pregnant girl that was found dead over on Highway 3? It’s all over the news. Have you watched TV lately?”

“
Hell no, I ain’t seen or heard nothing about no missing girl or baby! Bitch, you know I don’t watch the news!” Diamond exclaimed. “C’mon now, I’m a fucking lady of the night, when do I have time to watch news about shit that ain’t got nothing to do with me!”

I knew that, but I thought I would throw it out there. More and more I was realizing just how much of a fucking mess my friend was.

“
Well, I seen this girl right here on the news!” I said, snatching the picture from her this time and putting it close to her eyes. “Same face . . . same girl. Now put that together with the fact I heard Duke telling that Dr. Gavin to make sure he gets these babies no matter what . . . and what do you have?”

Diamond looked as if she was concentrating. “That’s some shit,” Diamond replied.

I had finally gotten through to her.

“
I started to turn over the pictures and the information I stole from Duke’s condo to the police. But you know what? I said, why not get something out of this shit. So I decided I will put the screws to Duke’s ass. I’m going to threaten him with going to the media and the police with what I know if he don’t give me some serious paper. This nigga just thought he could take everything I had, leave me with nothing and get married on me without any consequences? Hell no, it ain’t going down like that.”

Diamond was all ears. I knew anything that had to do with money she would be down for it. Once I was sure I had her undivided attention, I told her what I needed.

“
So I need your help with putting together a solid plan where I can get the money from his ass safely and get the fuck outta dodge. Of course I’ma hit you off with your share for any help you give me with this,” I told her. I was saying the key words and Diamond was into it.

“
So, here’s what I had in mind for us to do,” I continued. “Maybe we can—”

Before I could brainstorm some of my ideas about the blackmail plan, this muthafucka, Brian, knocked on my bedroom door.

“
Diamond!” the worthless asshole yelled from the other side of the door.

I instantly cut my words short. I didn’t want him to hear anything about my plans. Not only did I not like Brian, I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw his ass.

“
What?” Diamond responded. She stood up and I knew that meant our meeting was over.

“
Bring your ass out here before we have problems!” he barked. “You think a nigga got time to be sitting in your room alone playing with my dick! I came here to see you, now get the fuck out here before I bounce on your dumb ass.”

I couldn’t believe how disrespectful this nigga was towards Diamond. It seemed as if she would just accept anything from his ass and for the life of me I could never understand it.

“
I’m sorry, girl. Let me go see what this pain in the ass wants,” Diamond whispered. It was as if she wasn’t even embarrassed by Brian’s rude displays. I rolled my eyes at her because I was fucking disgusted that she refused to put her damn foot down with him.

“
I know, don’t mind him,” Diamond consoled when she saw how mad I was now. I didn’t say a word. “Listen, hold those thoughts about the plans. I’m down for whatever and we can talk all about it in private when I get home from the club tonight.”

I softened my face a little bit. Primarily because what other choice did I have. Reluctantly, I agreed to wait for her to talk more about it. There was no way I could do something as serious as this without Diamond. She was way more street savvy than me. She also had her ear to the ground in the streets so putting together a plan would be easy for her.

I sighed loudly and just accepted the fact that I would have no choice but to wait on her. Diamond left out of my room and I could hear her and Brian going at it. I didn’t know if they were arguing or fucking again. I closed my eyes and tried to think positive thoughts. I got a little excited about the possibilities of getting my hands on some money.

Together, Diamond and I were going to come up with what I deemed my “cheaper to keep her plan” against Duke.

And I couldn’t wait!

Cheaper to Keep Her Unique

Chapter 25—Do or Die

Being in the house with so many thoughts and different variations of plans in my head was driving me crazy.

The anxiety I was feeling was enough to kill me. Not only did I need Diamond to hurry up and come home, I also felt as if I needed a stiff drink to ease my mind. I tried to be patient and wait for Diamond to come home from the club, but it seemed as if I had been waiting for her for days instead of hours. With no real money of my own and nothing to do, I was restless as hell. That was probably the reason I kept obsessing about my plot against Duke. I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to get with Diamond so we could come up with a good plan.

“
I can’t take this shit no more,” I huffed as I started putting on some clothes. I dumped out my purse and counted up the little left over dollar bills and change I had scattered in the bottom of my bag. I counted it, hoping I had enough. Damn, just made it, I thought.

I used my last few dollars and called a cab. I had the cabdriver take me to the Magic City. Diamond was going to have to see me now. It was just that serious with me . . . or I was that impatient. I needed to discuss this shit with Diamond and I wasn’t confident she would bring her ass home before I conked out or something. She had been keeping some fucked up hours lately. She had also been drinking a lot too. She probably had already forgotten that she promised to come straight home. In any case, I was at the club now so she had no choice but to get with me on this.

When I walked in the club, I was immediately assailed by the strong smell and thick, hazy smoke from cigarettes and weed. I waved my hand in front of my face realizing that being away from the club for so long I was no longer immune to the scent of it. I could hardly breathe and frankly I wanted to gag. I had my face contorted into a nasty scowl. I didn’t know how I used to do it in this ghetto ass place and I still didn’t know how Diamond was doing it every night.

As I weaved my way through the tables I recognized some of the same old regulars that were always in the club day in and day out. Nothing much had changed about the place. A few patrons spoke to me and asked if I was coming back to work there. I told them hell no, acting as if I had dumped the club instead of the truth, that Neeko wouldn’t hire me back out of fear Duke would try to ruin him. I stopped and spoke to a few patrons that told me they missed the way I mixed my drinks. I listened to them complain a little about the new bartender and I found it quite amusing. Shit, I needed an ego booster.

I finally spotted Diamond after scanning the club a few times with my eyes. I twisted my face into a scowl once again when I spotted her. “Fuck!” I hissed. She was busy, which wasn’t good for me. She was giving a patron a lap dance, which meant I was going to have to wait for goodness knows how long before she was done. I didn’t care. I walked up on her and her customer. “Diamond!” I screamed over the music.

She stopped her dance for a few seconds and looked at me strangely. She looked like she was high on something.

“
I’m gonna be at the bar. When you finish, come see me. We gotta talk as soon as possible,” I shouted.

Diamond nodded her head as if she was barely able to keep it up, then she started grinding on the guy’s dick again. As high as she looked it gave me an uneasy feeling. When I saw the guy reach under her thong and touch her bare pussy that made me queasy. I always thought the rule of the club for lap dancing was no under the clothes contact. Diamond was getting desperate these days. I couldn’t believe she was letting a total stranger put his fingers inside of her pussy like that. I stomped away in total disgust. Plus, I was a little worried about her.

I climbed up on a barstool and ordered a shot of Patron. I was scrutinizing the new bartender and I couldn’t front, I was envious as hell. She was really cute and the customers that used to skimp on tips with me seemed to be tipping her well. I was pissed off watching this whack ass chick try to be me behind the bar. I was jealous as hell. I turned around and went back to watching Diamond instead of the bartender.

My girl was working hard trying to make a quick buck. It was pretty fucking pathetic the way she had to do all of that for those few little dollars. She was dancing to Gucci Mane’s rap song, “Lemonade.” I didn’t know how Diamond did that shit. She was grinding and popping and straddling the guy. I could see the sweat on her body from where I sat. My girl was working too hard for a small payday from these slimy assholes.

I shook my head and took my shot to the head.

I winced as the tequila went down warm. I watched Diamond some more and knew just why I couldn’t do that bullshit stripping and lap dancing. Suddenly, I saw Diamond stop dancing. She jumped up off the guy’s lap and I saw her waggling her finger in the guy’s face and twisting her neck as if she was arguing with him. “Oh shit,” I mumbled with my eyes getting wide. I could tell something was going down. I slowly stepped down off the barstool but I didn’t move, I just watched for a minute to see if she was going to be able to handle whatever was going on.

“
What’s up, nigga? I’m dancing like a muthafucka and you ain’t pulled out no fucking money yet!” Diamond yelled, her words slurring. Damn, if I could hear her almost clear across the club with loud music playing I knew she was yelling very loud. I saw the dude stand up and stand toe-to-toe with Diamond. He was taller than her but he was right in her face. That’s when I started moving slowly towards them. I wasn’t about to sit there and let a nigga put his hands on her.

“
Where’s my fucking money!” Diamond screamed. Now I could hear her better because I was getting closer. The dude pushed Diamond out of his face roughly and told her he wasn’t going to give her shit because her pussy stunk. A group of dirty, broke down ass niggas that was with him starting laughing and clowning Diamond. I made it over to them to pull Diamond away before he did something stupid to her, but I wasn’t in time to keep her from doing something to him.